The joint venture between the ESB and British Telecom (BT) will compete head to head with Telecom Eireann for business customers, the new company has said. But its executives fell short of promising competition for residential users, and could not reveal what the company would be called.
The new company is a 50-50 joint venture between BT and ESBI Telecoms; three-fifths of ESBI Telecoms is owned by the ESB, with the American insurance giant AIG holding the remaining share.
Eireann's dominant position.
The chief executive of the new company is Mr George McGrath, up until yesterday the head of BT's operations in the Republic. The board will be chaired by Mr Donal Curtin, who is commercial director of the ESB, and will also include the Belfast-based Ms Lucy Woods, chief executive of BT Ireland, as well as Mr Don Roth, representing AIG.
He said there would be a payroll of around 90 people, which would grow over time, but fixed costs would be kept to a minimum: "We are trying not to build an overhead we don't see ourselves building a big organisation," he said.
